CSBR: Natural History: High-Density Storage, Improved Preservation, and Digital Networking for OSU COV Collections of Fishes, Amphibians, and Reptiles

Oklahoma State University, Stillwater OK

Investigators

Abstract

Oklahoma State University Collection of Vertebrates (OSU COV) comprises collections of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, and frozen tissues and is administered through the OSU Department of Integrative Biology. These represent invaluable specimens and associated data that are used in research, instruction, and outreach within the OSU/Northern Oklahoma community and throughout the larger community of scholars. This project focuses on improvements to COV-Fishes and COV-Amphibians and Reptiles through replacement of substandard storage containers, installation of high-density, compactible shelving, and completion of digitization and georeferencing for these collections, thus allowing for enhanced use of these collections for research, university instruction, and public education/outreach. These improvements will facilitate use of these collections by OSU faculty and students, researchers from other institutions, and also will enable collaborative efforts with K-12 groups and regional Tribal Colleges that have been hindered by poor conditions of the collection. This award ensures protection of irreplaceable specimens, increase efficiency of use of space, and provide access to associated data via the Internet to researchers within and beyond the OSU community. The COV-Fishes contains specimens from around the globe with concentrations in the Central Plains of North America and Nepal. This collection also includes a more than 20-year series of fishes from sampling stations throughout Oklahoma donated by Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ) that have not yet been cataloged. The COV-Amphibians and Reptiles collection includes specimens from around the world including Chilean lizards and Ozark Plateau salamanders. These collections include type specimens of species described in the last 10 years and have provided materials for these descriptions to researchers at several other universities. Nepalese specimens potentially hold additional undescribed species and ODEQ specimens have great potential for understanding long-term patterns/processes in stream ecology, impacts of environmental change and contaminants, and effects of changing patterns of land use. This project will support installation of high-density, compactible shelving and stainless steel tanks, and to replace substandard containers. The collection catalogs are partially digitized, but only Oklahoma fish are georeferenced, and no catalog is currently searchable via the Internet. The project will allow for digitization and georeferencing of all catalogs and development of a searchable database. Collaborations established with interdisciplinary college-level and K-12 cross-disciplinary programs at OSU and a growing collaboration with Comanche Nation College will be leveraged through the supported improvements and digitization. All data resulting from this project will be shared with iDigBio (https://www.idigbio.org/), ensuring accessibility to researchers and the public.